Part Five: Project 10 - Primary Research

I was very lucky to visit Indonesia and Bali earlier in the year, where I encountered a wealth of research for this project.

These are some of the 'new from old' items that are made in Indonesia.
Discarded materials remade into something new and fashionable.
Some of these items were found in contemporary furniture and art shops, others were found in certified Fairtrade Shops.
Either way, the discarded waste has found another use and people have been employed to source and make the products.

Film Canisters

Furniture made from Film Canisters

Plastic Bags

Macrame bag made from plastic bags

Feed Sacks

Storage containers made from feed sacks

Old Boats

Pictures built from pieces of the old Balinese Boats

Corks

Mirror surround made from old corks

Old Jeans

Old jeans made into a bean bag

Rice Sacks

Bags made from Rice Sacks

Feed Sacks

Another example of the bags made from recycled sacks

Milk Cartons

Flip Flops made from Milk Cartons

Feed Sacks

Back packs made from sacks

Video Tape

Fairtrade shop selling bags made from recycled video tape

Threads of Life shop in Bali - a registered Fairtrade outlet.

Threads of Life, Bali - a registered Fairtrade outlet

I was so inspired by the types and the quality of the recycled goods that were to be found in Jakarta and Bali.
Although the recycling of goods cuts down on waste - some of these items: the film canisters, the video tape, had no life other than to be thrown away and buried.

As I found out the recycling of goods does bring employment - it is not glamorous or well paid, but someone always has to sort the rubbish.

The rubbish collector and his cart

Carts stored along the street

Carts left near the tip

A full cart waiting to go into the tip

The men taking a break

Trucks arriving with more rubbish at the tip

While all the work goes on collecting the rubbish, the hard work starts when it needs sorting.
Different people will be responsible for sorting the different types of plastics, bits of cloth, rope - anything that can be sold or re-used has a value.
It is very different from the recycling schemes in the UK where families are fined for sorting their rubbish incorrectly.

Some of the day to day scenes in Jakarta also inspired me.

I found these discarded bottle tops embedded into the ground

Bottle tops scattered and trodden into the ground

Graffiti on the walls

Some of the graffiti, or street art left on a wall

An old poster

The remains of an old poster 

Street kids playing football in a piece of waste ground

Children watching on as their friends play football

Jakarta was a wonderful, warm, friendly place to be.
At the same time it was possibly the busiest, craziest city that I have visited.
We stayed in Kemang which is the heart of all the arts and crafts, when we visited Bali we stayed in Ubud - another favourite haunt for artists.

Some of these images will be used in my samples. I really found the project came to life due to my visit to Jakarta - it was an inspirational place to be in.